UFC Fight Night 24 Analysis: The Main Card

Few sports move as fast as mixed martial arts. Last week, fight
fans were eager to find out whether Jon Jones
could be the next Georges
St. Pierre. This week, the focus turned to Phil Davis
and whether or not he might be the man to challenge “Jonny Bones”
later this year.

A combination of five weeks’ notice and a glut of injuries in
preparation -- as well as facing the strongest and most experienced
opponent of his young career -- resulted in a workmanlike and
unspectacular decision from “Mr. Wonderful” against Antonio
Rogerio Nogueira.

Below, an in-depth look at Davis-Nogueira and three other main card
matches from Saturdays UFC Fight
Night 24.

What happened: Despite taking the fight on just 10 days’
notice, this fight was all “Korean Zombie” from the opening
bell.

Already familiar with Garcia’s game from their critically acclaimed
first encounter in April 2010, Jung did a good job of sidestepping
his opponent’s telegraphed punches and kicks in the early going.
With 100 seconds to go in the round, Jung hit an easy leg-trip
takedown and looked for an armbar. Garcia spun free, only to be
dropped back down by a pair of knees from the clinch. Jung ended
the round in mount, raining down punches.

The second stanza began slowly, with a display of cage kickboxing
highlighted by flying knees from both fighters. The beginning of
the end for Garcia came when he and Jung exchanged simultaneous
kicks, with Jung landing better and Garcia going down. Same as in
the first round, the Korean Zombie instantly took top position and
did damage with cracking elbow strikes.

Just when round three seemed inevitable, Jung took Garcia’s back,
isolated one leg and arm, and submitted the “Bad Boy” with a spinal
lock -- also known as a “twister,” as popularized by Eddie
Bravo.

What worked well for Jung: Stability, reactivity,
creativity.What Jung needs to work on: Protecting his chin, adding some
bulk.

What worked well for Garcia: Heart, robustness.What Garcia needs to work on: Striking technique, game
planning, consistency.

What happened: In another fight patched together on short
notice, things did not go as well for late replacement DaMarques
Johnson as they did for Chan Sung Jung.

Amir
Sadollah file photo

Sadollah’s muay Thai is sharp.

In the early going, Johnson was able to capitalize
on some of the mistakes Sadollah made. The “Ultimate Fighter 9”
runner-up managed to get on top when Sadollah slipped on a head
kick, and Johnson got another takedown after catching one of
Sadollah’s front kicks. A nice hip throw should have clinched the
round for Johnson, who did well on the takedowns but could not
control Sadollah on the mat.

Round two started with one of the better slugfests in recent
memory. Although Johnson was the more skilled boxer of the two,
Sadollah got the better of the exchange with his wide array of
kicks and knee strikes from the clinch. A few knees to the body
appeared to sap much of Johnson’s energy, and Sadollah proceeded to
pin his opponent against the cage and mash away. With two minutes
left in the round, Sadollah scored a leg-sweep takedown straight
into mount. From there, he tied up the visibly tired Johnson’s arm
and forced him to submit with a series of elbow strikes to the
head.

What worked well for Sadollah: Knees from every distance,
conditioning.What Sadollah needs to work on: Wrestling, timing his
kicks.

What worked well for Johnson: Capitalizing on opponent’s
mistakes, throws.What Johnson needs to work on: Top control, not fighting his
opponent’s fight.

What happened: This fight was almost a blueprint of last
week’s 205-pound title bout between Jon Jones and Mauricio
“Shogun” Rua. The only differences were that Johnson does not
have Jones’ toolbox and Hardy came into the fight in better shape
than Rua.

Johnson’s wrestling, reach advantage and sheer physical dominance
were crucial in this fight. After a 14-month layoff and some
well-documented weight problems, there were a lot of question marks
behind “Rumble” going into the fight, but he erased those with a
disciplined showing.

All three rounds shared a similar pattern: Hardy had trouble
closing the distance against Johnson’s four-inch reach advantage,
and thus, the Englishman started his attacks from too far out.
Johnson then took Hardy down with relative ease and stayed active
enough in top position to not be stood up.

Hardy attempted several kimuras off his back, but did not come
close to pulling the submission off. Johnson, meanwhile, had two
highlights in his otherwise conservative game plan: a first-round
head kick which knocked Hardy down and an arm-triangle choke
attempt in the final minute of the third round.

What worked well for Johnson: Takedowns, top game, reach
advantage.What Johnson needs to work on: Conditioning, doing more
damage on the ground.

What worked well for Hardy: Durability, submission
defense.What Hardy needs to work on: Wrestling, wrestling,
wrestling.

What happened: The game plan coming into the fight was for
Davis to mix his wrestling and kicks to offset Nogueira’s supposed
advantages in the boxing and jiu-jitsu departments. However,
“Minotoro” only reacted to attacks for the majority of the fight,
seeking not to strike first, but to catch Davis with a hook or an
uppercut on the counter.

Davis smartly used his solid kicks as separators, so “Little Nog”
seldomly got into striking distance. What worked very well for the
Brazilian in the first half of the fight was his defense of the
four-time NCAA Div. I All-American wrestler’s shot. “Mr. Wonderful”
did a good job adjusting, however, as he switched from double- to
single-leg takedown attempts to finally wrestle Nogueira to the mat
with two minutes to go in the second round.

Once on the floor, Davis did damage from the gut-wrench position
with brutal knee strikes to the ribcage. In the final round, it
appeared as if Davis had perhaps a little too much respect for
Nogueira’s vaunted ground game, as the 26-year-old mainly
controlled Nogueira from half-guard en route to the decision
victory.

What worked well for Davis: Separator kicks, single-leg
takedown, attacks from gut-wrench position.What Davis needs to work on: Ignore comparisons to Jon Jones
and continue to go his own way.

What worked well for Nogueira: Takedown defense, pushing his
opponent off and getting up.What Nogueira needs to work on: Fight more proactively and
aggressively.

Contact Tim at www.facebook.com/Rossonero1 or follow him on
twitter @Rossonero1.

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